By Ken Delpit

I can’t pretend to know myself
When all the world’s disturbing
I’m just one more volume on the shelf
Wedged twixt puzzling and perturbing

I keep hoping, from day to day
That sanity will return
But then I grasp how blind I’ve been
My vision’s been grim-astern

It’s not that simple truths have ceased
Goodnesses have not vanished
But ethics have been moved to “Least”
When common sense is banished

I’ll do my best to hold on tight
And weather impending storms,
Be alert to sources of light,
And find comfort in the warms

Often, it is not easy to find equitable balance between the good and the bad in the world. It would seem that hope and despair are not simple opposites. Rather, they seem to occur in pairs, as though opposite sides of the same coin. Ken Delpit tries to express a bit of such dichotomy in this piece.